by Scott, Talyn
Sayer moaned with a twist of his hips. “Tell me that I didn’t kill her.”
“Can’t you hear her heart pounding?” Gage smiled, lifting a nearly unconscious Azure off of Sayer’s wet cock. “The suction is incredible. Can you hear that?”
“Not with my blood pounding in my ears this way.” He gripped his balls, squeezing. “She is built for me.”
“That she is.” Gage placed her in the bed, easing her gently. “Azure? Love?”
A soft snore left her lips.
“How damaged is she from the vampires?” Sayer sounded alarmed. “Why is she sleeping so much?”
“It’s not from her leg,” Gage whispered, brushing her dark hair from her stunning alabaster skin. “It’s her mating heat, but I put her out myself earlier. It’s taxing for her human side, makes it a little more, uh, intense than it is for a full-blooded female.”
“What about you?” Sayer motioned to Gage’s erection. “You didn’t take her.”
“I’m fine until she wakes up.” He looked to his closet and then clothes appeared on his body. Gage needed to get away from Azure before the Beast became an ass and scared her. Sayer needed to lose his virginity and Gage was decent enough not to upstage him. The only reason he backed off just now. But his decision was wearing on him, and he needed to run, desperately. “I need to meet with Heath and Bane. Grab some washcloths from underneath the sink, run them under warm water, and clean up her sex gently. In case she’s sore.”
Sayer looked genuinely insulted. “She won’t wear my scent?”
“Oh, you have so much to learn about women.” Gage misted away with a chuckle.
Chapter Fourteen
Gage jumped countless stories, landing atop Jordan Marketing – a building he’d worked and lived in for years.
He hopped off the roof onto a high balcony, easily walking the lip of a long planter filled with Pigmy Date Palms. The moon shone high above, glowing, fueling his Beast. It was growing late, and he was certain Azure would be waking soon. He pulled himself from his werewolf, easing into a smaller, human form, and texted Sayer to remind him to feed her. Vampires had a tendency to forget about food.
He wanted to speak with Heath and Jayce before heading back. They needed a precise plan for dealing with Tare. Any creature waiting hundreds of years to exact revenge was beyond dangerous, he was mentally unstable. One of the reasons Gage had stayed out so long. He had been hunting for a scentless, flame-throwing monster. One that wanted what was his. But Tare could rot in the fiery depths of hell before he even thought of touching Azure again.
He scented Tatum right away. She stood in the night air, staring at her cell phone strangely, and then whipped her arm back. Gage misted and snatched it before she hurled the thing. It didn’t take three guesses for him to figure out who was on the other end. “Mike,” he spoke gently, not relishing another encounter that involved him overstepping any lines as far as Tatum was concerned. “Why is she upset? Uh-huh,” he said, hearing Mike but not seriously listening. It was all a pretense. He’d get down to the truth of the matter when he ended the call. “Well, any conversation encouraging her to throw a perfectly good phone off the roof isn’t a good one. Yes. I understand.” He still wasn’t listening, his thoughts drifting to Azure and her lush curves. “Okay, then. Give her some more time. Thanks for all you’re doing in Scotland. Yes, Sayer’s adapting well with the humans. Uh-huh. We’ll talk this over soon.” He hit end and met her eyes. She looked terrified, and he didn’t like it. “What’s going on, Tatum?”
“He wants to come home.”
Five words that packed an incredible punch, he clearly understood her apprehension. In Gage’s eyes, Mike would never be trustworthy. But it wasn’t his call to make. “And what did you say to that?”
“That’s the part you walked in on.” She leaned an arm against the railing, staring into the horizon.
He smiled. “When you were hanging up on him?”
She almost smiled back but couldn’t muster it. “Yeah, I thought that when he went away to Scotland. I wouldn’t see him for a long time.”
“Maybe never?” He pressed.
“I don’t know.” Tatum twisted her wedding ring. “In some ways, I pretend not to see problems, so I don’t have to deal.”
“Ah, I’m not buying it. So far, you’ve handled Mike quite well.”
Her blonde brows slammed down. With trembling lips, she whispered, “Gage, keep him overseas…for a while at least.”
Unfortunately, Gage called those particular shots, and she damned well knew it. “You can’t discuss this with Bren and Jayce?”
“It makes for a tense conversation that I don’t feel like having again, at least, not for a while.”
“Okay, but time doesn’t stop a werewolf,” he explained something she didn’t want to hear. “We have an eternity to wait for what we want, whether one waits patiently or not…” Nor does it stop a vampire intent on vengeance.
“I get it.”
“Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. I’m not Mike’s cheerleader. In fact, I wish he were dead and gone. But he’s connected to you.” He curled his fingers under her chin, lifting her eyes to his, and willing her to understand the serious complications brought on by procrastination. “It’s a situation you don’t want to avoid every single day of forever, without making an effort to deal with it.”
“Even though it’s so soon after…you know. Jayce says I’m pregnant.”
“I agree.” He dropped his hand. Relieved that touching her didn’t spark any old feelings. “I can smell your shift in hormones. Celestial power is magnificent this time of year. Magic, for lack of a better human word, is passed down from Alpha to Alpha at just the right time. Jayce chose his time wisely.”
“Okay, so…,” she lagged, but he knew where she was going.
“And Mike is a potent irritation your body doesn’t need,” he summed it up, understanding that she didn’t want Mike around whether she was pregnant or not. But her motives didn’t matter to him.
“Gage, dealing with Mike face-to-face will be stressful.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he promised. “For as long as I can.”
She smiled tentatively. “Thanks.”
“Just remember my warning.” He released a slow breath. “Taking into consideration that you’re immortal now, tomorrows always come. You can’t push them away forever. And if you didn’t have a little bit of life’s darkness to muddle through on occasion, the light wouldn’t be bright enough to enjoy during the good parts.”
“Life’s good parts, huh?” Tatum pursed her lips before flashing a genuine smile. “I understand, and I thank you for sharing your wisdom.” She looked as though she wanted to say more.
“And?”
“Maestru?”
“I think we give Maestru too much air time.” His werwolf flashed, glowing behind his eyes. She took a cautious step backwards, though he didn’t scent her fear. “You should never fear me, my queen,” his Beast’s voice rumbled.
“I don’t fear a creature that’s risked everything to protect me and my sister repeatedly.” She motioned toward her feet as a way of apologizing for stepping back. “Just out of reflex,” she explained. “You guys are always sexy, but I must say that scary is the prominent feature of a werewolf.”
“Whatever you want to know about Maestru, he growled and waited a minute, forcing his Beast to move back. “Ask me now and be done with it once and for all.” He shouldn’t snap at his queen in this way, but Maestru wasn’t a safe subject.
“I heard Bren complaining about the whole fangs thing.”
Because Bren couldn’t let it go. “I took his fangs for ravaging your throat.”
“I didn’t say anything. But the first time you misted to me, I was in the tub. You presented his fangs then, dropping them on the floor. You hadn’t seen my throat yet.”
Why did she have to get picky? “When I first came upon the scene, your blood was dripping from his chin. He gloried in yo
ur flavor, in the thought of feeding on the Alpha’s queen. To say that I was enraged would be a gross understatement.”
“And even though you saved me again, Bren and Jayce are still angry with you.”
“I took an honor due them. One I had no rights to.” He left her gaze and stared into the dark sea, swirling with the nighttime. “They’ll get over it. We have too many other things to concern ourselves with right now.”
“He’s ancient.”
“Yes.” She wasn’t going to drop it. “Maestru is older than I am.”
“He still doesn’t have a mate, though.” “They refer to their mates as Brides. Unlike our instant lust and tethering we encounter with our celestial mates, Vampires fall instantly in love when they near their soul mate. They don’t have to work up to that emotion.”
“It’s kind of hard to grasp, a little weird.”
“Weird because you were brought up in the human world. Many humans still do not marry for love, but for money or powerful connections instead.”
“You’ve got me there.” But she still wasn’t dropping it. “He’s off in a deeper way. Maestru never met his Bride?”
“That’s his pretense. Only a scant few know better.”
“Including you?”
“Including me,” he said soundly. “Maestru’s Bride is dead.”
“Tell me that he didn’t,” Tatum gasped.
“He didn’t,” he reassured her. “Maestru even tried to bring her back in the form of the Undead, but it was much too late.”
“Jayce could have started a war for what he did to me, but he didn’t. Is that the reason?”
“No. Jayce doesn’t forgive atrocities such as the ones Maestru committed against you, especially you. The time will come when he and Bren settle that specific score with Maestru. But right now, sadly, we have a bigger fight on our hands. Dismantling these breeding camps requires us to keep what broken alliances we have with the Captiva Coven. We’re stronger working together as a collective whole.”
“Are the Habalines really aliens?”
She knew too much. “Speculation leans towards Habalines arriving here long before the Weres were born. Who knows?” Vagueness would keep her safer. “Maybe they think werewolves, vampires, and humans are aliens.” And all of the other immortal creatures she knew nothing about.
Then, an annoying voice broke their conversation. Arian rounded the corner with Tatum’s sister, Molly, in tow, though everyone had heard her before she appeared. “I don’t know what the big deal was about my traveling alone. As in really alone, without a walking, talking Viking shadowing my every move,” she said while gritting her veneers. Never once thinking she should be afraid of glaring at a nearly three-hundred pound monster skating on threadbare control.
Instead of responding to Molly – undoubtedly, he had many times, and it went through one of her ears and out the other – Arian smiled at Tatum. Gage read that smile easily. It said here’s your bitching sister. Glad she’s your problem now and no longer mine. Gage thrust out a hand, greeting him the way human males do. He gestured with his chin for Arian to take off. Molly still didn’t know what they were, what rushed her very veins, and everyone had to be on their best behavior. Arian needed to leave and calm himself. In his youth, tamping down his beast was more difficult for him. Time and age cultivated patience. And if anyone could work a werewolf to a foaming lather, it was Tatum’s sister.
Tatum hugged her warmly, and then held her at arm’s length. “You look good, Mol. A little too thin, why aren’t you eating?”
She eyed Tatum up and down but didn’t return any compliments. “Wilson doesn’t want me to gain weight.”
Passive aggressive, Gage shook his head at that thought, realizing one of Molly’s biggest problems. She was incredibly jealous of her sister. Tatum had been through quite enough in her life, she deserved every second of happiness bestowed upon her, and then some.
Gage couldn’t help but give it right back to her. No one should upset Tatum so callously. He loathed people who put others down in an attempt to make themselves look or feel better. Wasted efforts on their parts, but they still managed to sting those around them. “So how is Wilson doing? I haven’t talked to him in a week or so.” Something flashed behind her eyes, but she was quick to punch up her plastic smile.
“He’s wonderful, working long hours, but that’s understandable.” She jutted her chin. “Dibosa & Associates keeps their best lawyer busy, on top of most things.”
Wilson may be on top of most things, but that didn’t include Molly. Though Wilson didn’t know that they were werewolves, Bren and Jayce remained as his close friends. Gage melted in by association. They discussed things attorneys discuss, and then some. Tatum and her family were unaware that Wilson had recently dumped her for none other than attorney Dibosa, his long-term partner turned lover. Yet, he was fighting her request for an annulment since Dibosa was still living at home with her family. And in the state of Florida, it would be easier for her to get a divorce. Jayce was waiting for Molly to come clean with the family. Gage figured everyone would be waiting a long time for that. But he was far from perfect, and who was he to judge anyone? So Tatum could find out when Molly was ready to confess.
“It’s a shame he couldn’t get away for…” How many days were they going to have to put up with impossible Molly?
“I’m only going to be here a few days,” she answered, hitching her hands on her waist while digging her perfectly painted nails into her hips. “I was going to stay with Renee, but Arian’s taking her to Norway,” she snarled but accented it with a dramatic eye roll. “I don’t know what’s with you two and your illegal marriages.”
“I assure you, Molly,” Gage murmured, his Beast smelling her blood in the water. “Tatum and Renee’s legalities are the least of your concerns.” He raised his chin, daring her to continue. His look said it all: I know everything, and I will tell if you choose to continue.
She gritted her teeth again, probably biting her response back.
“Mol, I’ll show you our place. A couple of guest rooms have the best ocean views. You can choose for yourself.”
If Tatum wanted to avoid stress, this arrangement wouldn’t work out in her favor. “She can use my place,” Gage offered.
“Why would I stay with you?”
“Molly!” Tatum chastised, flushing scarlet.
Molly’s gratitude overwhelmed him. “Not with me.” As if. “I’ve recently moved to another building. Since you’re irritated with your sister’s lifestyle, but still find you want to visit her, I strongly suggest you stay in my old place instead.” He threw a touch of compulsion her way, making his suggestion irresistible. “A small distance between you, Jayce, and Bren will work far better than you realize.” Otherwise, Molly would be on a plane within the hour. Bren and Jayce wouldn’t tolerate her upsetting their mate in any way.
“If that’s what Tatum wants, then fine.”
“Maybe he’s right, Mol.” Tatum pressed her hands down her shorts, a gesture indicating she was trying to calm her nerves. “You’re hostile lately.”
Lately? Even Gage rolled his eyes at that. But Tatum’s problems were just starting. Heath was walking behind a huge box, rambling slowly since none other than Granny followed him. Gage pinched his nose between his finger and thumb, wishing he could mist out but Molly would get an eyeful if he did.
“Mrs. Shirley, so good to see you again,” he greeted her warmly. She ignored his outstretched hand, so he shoved it in his pocket.
“Where’d the brute go?”
Tatum stomped her foot. “Granny, please tell me that you’re not still calling Arian that.”
“Oh, she is,” Bren said, coming up behind Tatum but Molly didn’t catch him misting in. “And she did it the entire three hours it took Arian to drive your family here.” He wrapped his arms around Tatum, rubbing her stomach affectionately while clucking his tongue at Granny. “You know better than to rile him up. He’s still in his youthful sta
mina.”
“Youthful stamina? Could’ve fooled me. That brute drives like an old woman,” she said, shaking a cane at Bren that she didn’t even need. “I tried to take over a time or two, but he’s a chauvinist, thinks women can’t drive.”
“Tatum sure can’t,” Bren snorted and Tatum elbowed him.
“Granny tried to ditch Arian at the last gas station,” Molly added, “the minute he stepped into the restroom, but somehow, he was next to the car before we took off.”
“You were aiding and abetting?” Tatum gasped.
“Supposedly, she knew the way here, and Arian annoys me.”
“Everyone annoys you, Molly.” Bren’s eyes traveled to Heath. “I’m afraid to ask.”
Heath lowered the box, staring hungrily at Molly’s red lips. “I’m thinkin’ this must be her cosmetics.”
Molly literally growled. “That’s Granny’s stuff! I don’t wear that much makeup, just a hint to accentuate my natural look.” She blinked her eyes innocently through no more than two sets of false eyelashes. But no one pointed that out.
Gage was finally enjoying himself. “How’s the place suiting you, Heath?”
Heath barely dragged his eyes from Molly. “Totally peaceful when Jude doesna snore.”
“Nice and big.”
“Oh, yeah.” He planted his hands on his hips, splaying his fingers. “We have room to spare.”
Gage slowly tilted his head toward Molly. “She’ll be bunking with you and Jude for a few days.”
Heath turned back, a predatory gleam lighting his eyes. “Will she, now?”
Chapter Fifteen
Azure moaned when butterfly kisses rained on her back…and her front. Oh, it felt so good being sandwiched between two hot men. And if she ever thought she was aware of her sexuality before, she was surely mistaken. She slid her hands down Gage’s sculptured chest, tracing that intricate tattoo with her fingertips. His moan echoed hers, his muscles bunching beneath her greedy hands, especially the most prominent one.